


Some Turkey and Some Mistletoe

by Butsinceimetyou



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:48:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28207824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Butsinceimetyou/pseuds/Butsinceimetyou
Summary: anon on tumblr requested: teenage barry and iris have their first kiss under the mistletoe + cute and shy iris vs cute and excited barry after the kiss---In one of those old, dusty boxes, Iris discovers a bundle of artificial mistletoe, sparkling with fake snow and adorned with plastic red berries, “Hey, dad, since when do we have mistletoe?” She asks, holding up the decoration for Joe to see from his place across the room where he has finished laying out the Christmas tree skirt, Barry seated on the floor beside him untangling twinkle lights.
Relationships: Barry Allen/Iris West
Comments: 8
Kudos: 40





	Some Turkey and Some Mistletoe

**Author's Note:**

> barry and iris are teens so this is obviously pre-barry becoming the flash. also doesn't follow canon for their romantic relationship.

Christmas time at the West house has always been a joyous affair. Their family may be small, but every year Joe made sure Iris had an amazing holiday, and when Barry joined them just four years before, he started to do the same for him, too, dressing up the house in a myriad of decorations, making a delicious meal of turkey and cake, and having a pile of presents waiting for both kids under the tree on Christmas morning.

But now that the kids have entered high school, Joe decides to give the Christmas celebration a full reset. So when it comes time to pull out the holiday decorations the day after Thanksgiving, he pulls out every box labeled, “Christmas” that is in that attic, including the few he had long ago abandoned for new decorations, so they can sort through and toss out anything they don’t use anymore.

In one of those old, dusty boxes, Iris discovers a bundle of artificial mistletoe, sparkling with fake snow and adorned with plastic red berries, “Hey, dad, since when do we have mistletoe?” She asks, holding up the decoration for Joe to see from his place across the room where he has finished laying out the Christmas tree skirt, Barry seated on the floor beside him untangling twinkle lights.

Joe squints at the gathering of leaves and ribbon for a moment before giving a small nod, “Ah, I put that away after your mom…” He trails off, giving his daughter a sad smile. Barry watches father and daughter have a quiet moment about the mother who they had lost long ago, long before he joined their little family.

He remembers his own parents kissing under the mistletoe at his house growing up, theirs freshly bought from the florist each year and tied in a red ribbon. The memory brings a similar sad kind of smile to his face.

Iris smiles softly back at her father, looking down at the mistletoe in her hands with a thought in her heart, “Could we hang it up this year?” She asks her father, “We don’t have to if you don’t want to but…” she pauses, running a gentle hand over the bow tying the bundle together, “the gold ribbon is really pretty,” She says with a small shrug, she also likes the thought of having something extra of her mom on display during the holidays, even if she can only just remember her.

“Sure thing, baby girl,” Joe nods, “We can hang it wherever you like, but I don’t know that it’s going to do much good in this house,” He chuckles, before turning serious, raising a curious brow at his daughter, “Unless there’s some boy I don’t know about.”

Beside him Barry grimaces, thinking about his bully Tony Woodward who had been hitting on Iris almost every day since they started back to school in August. She never seemed to reciprocate the ridiculous pick-up lines or the notes passed in class, but Barry couldn’t stop the terrible ache that would spring up in his chest whenever he saw them interacting.

Iris on the other hand rolls her eyes, “No, dad. There’s no boy. I just like the way it looks,” She hums, setting the mistletoe aside so she can continue her search through the box, “It doesn’t have to be for kissing, it’s just a nice decoration.”

* * *

Iris decides to hang the mistletoe right in the front hall. To cross into the living room, the family has to walk right underneath it, the gold ribbon glistening from the light of the living room windows. Joe and Iris enjoy the return of the mistletoe to the holiday decor, both finding it nostalgic—Joe remembering the wife he once loved so dearly and Iris imagining the mother she never really knew.

Barry, however, looks at it with nothing but nerves for the first few weeks that it is up, dreading the possibility of he and Iris accidentally step under the hanging bundle at the same time (at the same time hoping for it just as much).

His crush on Iris is nothing new, but he has managed to keep his feelings well at bay for the past five years—but a traditional plant that forces people to kiss had never been a problem that he had to deal with before.

They make it through most of December completely in the clear, leading Barry to believe he has nothing to worry about. Of course, just when he stops carefully calculating his movements in and out of the living room is right when it happens—just a few days before Christmas.

Both teens gaze up at the hanging decoration, shocked into a pause right in the middle of their own home. Barry is thrumming with nerves, while Iris is simply intrigued by the situation they have stumbled into.

“It’s just a decoration, right?” Barry says, chewing on the inside of his cheek, “It’s not like we _have_ to kiss,” He says with a forced chuckle, running a nervous hand through his hair, “It’s a ridiculous tradition anyway.”

In front of him, Iris bites her lip, roaming her eyes over Barry’s freckled face as he continues his rambling. She has imagined kissing boys before, has kissed a few, in fact, but she had never thought about kissing _Barry_. He is her best friend and the boy who sleeps just across the hall. The thought of them doing anything remotely beyond platonic was completely ridiculous.

However, the more she takes in the pinkness of Barry’s lips and the light blush blooming on his cheeks, she can’t help but realize—

Barry Allen is kind of cute. Actually, he is _really_ cute.

How had she missed this all these years? But just as she misses much of what he is saying now, Iris realizes that she hadn’t been fully paying attention.

“…I mean it’s not like you’d ever want to kiss me anyway,” Barry says, at last taking a deep, nervous breath as he finishes his rant, but Iris stays quiet, tucking a loose bit of hair behind her ear as she eyes Barry curiously and takes a step closer to him.

“Iris?” Barry says softly, voice sounding with disbelief, “What are you—” he starts, but he is quickly cut off by the warm press of lips against his own.

She kisses him, and it takes Barry more than a moment to react, his body tense with surprise until he finally sighs against her lips, eyes fluttering closed as he kisses her back.

Her lips are warm and taste like cherry lip gloss, and Barry doesn’t think he has ever felt this happy in his 14 years as he does right now kissing Iris West. He just hopes Iris feels the same way.

When they finally break apart, an excitable laugh escapes Barry’s lips, bringing a flush to his cheeks as he looks down in embarrassment, “That was, uh,”

“That was nice,” Iris says softly, smiling shyly when Barry finally looks up at her with wide eyes.

“It was?...” Barry asks with unwavering hope before clearing his throat and smiling wide, “I, I, uh, I mean, yeah, it was…it was amazing.”

Iris grins, reaching out to grab Barry’s hand, giving it a comforting squeeze before stepping up on her tiptoes, “I might need a reminder, though,” and she kisses him once more.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! i'm over at glitzgustin on tumblr if you want to send in prompts, cry over westallen, or simply say hey <3


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